Posted on 12/09/2003 7:55:26 AM PST by chance33_98
Woman Who Made Groping Allegations Sues Schwarzenegger
A woman who accused Arnold Schwarzenegger of sexual harassment has now filed a defamation lawsuit against him. The suit claims Schwarzenegger's staff planted a false rumor that she was a convicted felon.
In the final days of the campaign for governor, Rhonda Miller went public with an allegation that Schwarzenegger groped her during the time she worked as a stuntwoman on the films "True Lies" and "Terminator 2." Almost immediately, the media began reporting that Miller had been convicted of several serious crimes.
The information on Miller was distributed by the Schwarzenegger campaign, which directed reporters to go to the Los Angeles Superior Court website and type the name "Rhonda Miller" into the search engine there. The search produced court records showing that a woman named Rhonda Miller had a long criminal record.
The records, as it turned out, were for a different Rhonda Miller. The Rhonda Miller who leveled allegations at Schwarzenegger has never been arrested.
Miller and her attorneys claim the Schwarzenegger campaign knowingly misdirected reporters in an effort to discredit her. The suit filed against the governor seeks unspecified monetary damages.
At a press conference today, Miller was accompanied by attorney Gloria Allred, who represented her when she initially made the allegations against Schwarzenegger. Allred will be part of the team Miller's legal team for the suit.
Schwarzenegger has consistently denied involvement in the alleged groping incidents. "I don't remember things that I've done or said 20 years ago," he said shortly after initial the accusations were leveled against him. "I don't remember things that I've done 30 years ago. And I said that many of the things that are in there are not true because that's not my behavior."
Gloria Allred and Mark Geragos appear to be the only two California lawyers with steady employment.
The leftists talked this women into gold digging.
Any defamation would have occurred during the recent campaign.
"Dang, I can't figure out which witch is skankier."
There is no problem for me there. Alred is the skankiest of the skankiest. I can't stand that creature.
All the trouble she stirs up, I hope eventually somebody will be able to sue HER for everything she's worth!
True, but they will have to prove that they knew it wasn't the same woman, and that Arnold was even aware of, much less approved of, the release of the information.
At any rate, I think it is a lame accusation on her part, as it would have been an easily disproved accusation by the Schwartzenegger people, resulting in a spate of bad publicity if it was so easily determined that it was a different person. If anything, it argues that they didn't dig deep enough, which is evidence that they didn't know it. The most they can be accused of is saying "hey, go look at the record" if the above story is accurate. The press should have done so, and reported that it was not her. All they could hope for is that the press would be lazy, take it on their word, and print it without checking the facts (as instructed by Arnold's people: "The information on Miller was distributed by the Schwarzenegger campaign, which directed reporters to go to the Los Angeles Superior Court website and type the name "Rhonda Miller" into the search engine there. The search produced court records showing that a woman named Rhonda Miller had a long criminal record."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.